B.C. Premier David Eby to speak as speculation mounts about snap election

British Columbians will be going to the polls twice in October.

B.C. Premier David Eby, who will be campaigning for re-election as NDP leader, announced on Tuesday afternoon that he is calling a snap election.

This means election day will be held on Saturday, Oct. 24, one week after the municipal election on Oct. 17.

Eby’s government has made a flurry of announcements in recent days, with ministers bolstering investments in health care.

Eby has already announced he is committed to pausing the provincial sales tax expansion and will build new BC Ferries vessels in the province.

In his speech on Tuesday afternoon, Eby said “for British Columbians and for Canadians, this is an existential moment. The prime minister has called this a rupture, and he is absolutely right.

“Donald Trump is attacking our workers. He’s targeting our businesses, and he is threatening our sovereignty.”

Eby added what the province needs to do now is similar to what residents do during wildfire season — act and prepare.

“You cut a line through the forest so the fire can’t spread to your community,” he said.

“You build a firebreak. And that is exactly what we need to do now. We need to build a firebreak around the things that make British Columbia special. The things that matter most to British Columbians.”

Eby said British Columbians deserve to have a say in the direction of the government and build a stronger province.

He said that the other direction would be following “the chaotic direction of the conservative parties in this province, cozying up to Trump, proposing draconian cuts to the public services that people depend on more than ever right now, raising your costs, inevitably, just like Trump has done in the United States, to Americans, closing the door to American health-care workers looking for something different and spreading the politics of division and chaos.”

Over the weekend, Eby’s biggest opponent, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, stepped down from leading the BC Conservatives.

Interim leader Lorne Doerkson said on Monday if Eby was to call a snap election “he’s gonna be sadly mistaken, the judgment call that he’s made on this party because there is a huge overwhelming support coming at me right now to get things back together.”

On Tuesday morning, Doerkson said he is “excited for an opportunity to change the government of B.C.”

But, he expressed concern that Eby feels an election call is necessary when the BC NDP already has a majority government.

“I think the last time we had an election, it was about $83 million in cost to the people of British Columbia,” he added.

“And I can assure you with accounting errors and growing debt that is just absolutely ballooning out of control, that the notion that this premier figures that he can spend $83 or $84 million on a snap election is shocking to me, to be honest.”